


What A Fool Believes

by K_Lionheart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, implied Pidge/Lance - Freeform, lol, sexual frustration may end up killing Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 01:31:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12519920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Lionheart/pseuds/K_Lionheart
Summary: In every relationship, there are moments when you just can't get your hands off the person you love. Moments filled with heat and passion. Moments where just the right words and actions will spark flames that feed scorching trails into the skin and it's all so fantastic, there's just impatience and the urge to delve into those times over and over again.And sometimes... they are moments where those same words and actions...just don't.And that's okay too. (He just needs to get over the curve to reach that point right now)





	What A Fool Believes

**Author's Note:**

> you bet your ass the Doobie Brothers wrote this fic with me

He had it planned down to the number of petals on the bed. The scent of the candles on the desk and table. How many spritzes of her favorite cologne he needed to apply over his chest, arms, and neck.

Keith was not what you'd call the typical romantic. He didn't bother with buying roses, he didn't do the spontaneous thing, he wasn't even particularly silver-tongued. When he met Allura, he never even considered her as a serious candidate for any potential romantic excursions and he highly believed the feeling to be mutual. Sure, he wasn't blind. His eyes liked following the curves of her figure as much as the next hot-blooded human being. He just kept his personal once-overs to himself and left everything well enough alone.

The office where they worked together loved gossip and so it wasn't odd to hear about the notorious Allura and her razor-sharp business suit as part of the weekly hot topic whenever someone of equal sharpness appeared at a team conference session. Keith never cared whether or not she really was interested in guys with blond hair, or if she believed the wives' tale about a man's shoe size being foretelling of bedside manners. When it came to working and finishing reports, he was grateful to at least know that if she was on it, she got the job done. The company loved her, on and off the gossip vines.

Even their conversations, while frequent considering the volume of shared work they handled, were fairly impersonal and quick to the point. Keith knew as little about Allura as she knew about him. So, imagine his expression when she floored him with the question,  _"Join me for a drink?"_ after a particularly long and stressful late night.

He didn't even remember saying yes, (he probably didn't. Just nodded) and found himself sitting across from her at a bar, maybe an hour before last-call and downing a glass of bourbon while she unbuttoned the top buttons of her blouse and fanned herself with an exhausted expression. It only took maybe two drinks to get her to open up. Three before she realized he was listening in earnest. Four before he said something that had her laughing a full-belly laugh. Four and a half before he realized she was pretty good at drawing a similar laugh from him too (only that came out through a snort that made the fizz of his vodka-soda burn up his nose and leave him doubled over.)

He walked her home that night. Stumbling over their feet and slurring idiotic insults at the bane of their evening (some high-collared client or other with a nose) before they reached her apartment complex and she gave him a warm smile.

_"You know, you're really funny."_ Her blue eyes were something awfully pretty then.  _"I'd love to keep chatting with you if that's okay."_

Keith could only nod and say,  _"Well, okay, but I'm pretty sure I'll start sounding like an idiot."_

Then she laughed.  _"Not now,"_ she patted him on the shoulder.  _"But on another night."_

and he couldn't say no.

And so they kept... going out for drinks after work. Suddenly, bits of their conversations were being sprinkled with inside jokes and knowing glances. Then he made her laugh after they met with a client (to the point that she was practically leaning on him to keep from falling over). Then she made one gesture from behind a client that had Keith excuse himself abruptly so he could go sit in a bathroom stall and keep from crying of laughter because  _oh god, why was that so funny?_

They became a team that worked so well together, he saw himself getting a raise and a spot on the office floor just by hers and suddenly the weekly gossip whispers started to include him in the newsletters. It was kind of weird how much they assumed that this display of effortless camaraderie was the result of private shagging. It didn't bother him. It was gossip. Gossip was always stupid.

But suddenly it did make him wonder. Did he like her? Of course, he did.

But  _like_ her?

He didn't have much time to think about it because then another assignment came in. And then another one. then another one. then another one. And maybe a solid six months passed between them where this question began to hang between them when the touches grew a little more frequent and lasted a little too long. Or when he started finding himself growing aggravated by people who stared too longingly at Allura, or suggested that she was using her feminine wiles to get up the corporate ladder.

Then the "discipline issue" happened two months after that and Keith just  _knew_ there was no way she could possibly know he had feelings for her because if she did... well... that would just mess things up wouldn't it? It always did. It never panned out.

Ever.

Never ever.

And he honestly believed that after the first serious fight they had over this unspoken thing and she ended up storming out of his apartment late one Thursday evening. He swore he would never let it come between them. But it did.

And Allura... beautiful, wonderful, Allura. She was a little more impatient than he was.

That Friday morning she appeared at his door. She gave him all of three seconds to register her appearance (wild, disgruntled, clothes haphazardly thrown-- _she **never** did that--_ and looking like she was going to commit a murder) before she pushed him inside and kissed him hard enough that Keith was pretty certain that alone nuked his arguments to little bits. They kissed and kissed and kissed all the moments that had haunted the two of them for the past year and a half (because god he wanted to kiss her from the moment he laid eyes on her and if that isn't terrifying, he didn't know what is) and ended up just spending the entire weekend together before they realized...

So, hey, this is actually going to be something isn't it?

He was pretty sure he was crazy. Because no way was Allura staring at him like she was  _crazy_ for him either. But she really was. And those first few months were  _wild._

Keith was pretty sure at some point he'd gone and died and made it to heaven and back that  _one_ time after a work conference had her leave for three weeks. He couldn't stop smirking to himself for days at the office. Seeing people's faces and the levels of scandalized realizations fall over their eyes was a solid plus too. (Lance bugging him about the details felt like an infinite negative though)

Their relationship continued to improve. They talked. They made love. They spent time with each other and laughed about the dumbest things no matter who questioned their sense of humor. Keith was unbelievably happy with his girlfriend (oh  _jeez_ , dude just learn how to breathe already. You can't possibly still blush this hard at just  _saying_ that) and he didn't expect there to be a time where that would be put into question.

...

Until it did though.

That time.

It came.

And... it quite honestly terrified him more than anything else. Yes. Even knowing he had wanted to kiss Allura since they met. It was  _that_ scary.

* * *

 

She'd been oddly unresponsive lately.

With a few changes in corporate being placed into effect, Keith was seeing less and less of Allura in the office. He'd been relocated to work directly under Iverson for the duration of a case and Allura had been assigned to work with an old flame from another company (his name was Shiro and  _holy shit_ , this guy was weirdly perfect in every way) and when Keith arrived to their shared apartment and found it cold and empty, it would just... suck.

Big time.

Still, he'd sigh, shake it off, pull off his tie and drink a beer before going to bed.

He'd find her curled at his side in the morning so it wasn't that bad. He could be supportive. He could be that awesome boyfriend that never questioned too much, or complained at the distance. He could give and give until she was sated and smiling and all it took was a soft kiss before they were both back to where they were happiest.

He figured she was tired.

She usually said it was because she was tired.

And then the days passed and one horrible, horrible day, Keith found himself pressed to the warmth of her skin, tracing his lips over that spot on her neck that she likes so much, and rocking them both together when he heard her sigh.

_A sigh._

And not the good, "Oh yes, Keith, very good!" kind of  _sigh,_ either.

Keith immediately froze and pulled away, looking down at her with a frown. "What was that?"

Allura blinked up at him as if she had been caught day-dreaming and was being called on in class. Her lips assumed that caring smile she gave him, the one where she was oblivious to anything wrong.

"What was what?"

" _That_ ," Keith said, pushing himself up to his elbows to stare down at her. "You... you  _breathed_ funny."

Allura's mouth popped open, baffled.

"I, what?"

Keith let out a slow breath through his nose, "Allura. What's going on?"

Her hands, resting on his chest and neck, began to stroke and soothe him, even if her eyes were now crinkled with confusion. "What do you mean?"

And he just  _couldn't_ ask it like a regular human being, right? Because happy people in happy relationships don't really ever deal with this stuff unless things were serious and/or headed down a path that could quite possibly end everything. So he just stared at her, stared until she began to sputter and he didn't know any other way to shrug the whole thing off other than to lean down and swallow her confusion down with a kiss. He got back to where they left off and while she started to react to him as she usually did, there was a hesitation leaking into his muscles, making him want to stop and hit pause and really get to the bottom of this. But he couldn't. He was an awesome boyfriend. He had to be the most awesome boyfriend ever, because dammit Allura deserved someone who was that for her.

It... it started to do things to him.

Not so great things.

And it all started with that stupid little  _sigh._

If you've ever had something get under your skin, you'd know it never really goes away until you figure out what the hell it is. Sometimes it saps the sleep out of you (check), or it makes you a little more irritable (check), or it makes it harder to focus on day to day things (double check), or even makes you become weirdly paranoid that it's bigger than it actually is and you snap the second someone even so much as hints in that direction (...check).

The point is, Keith did snap. Loudly. At the new receptionist.

And,  _god_ , he made her cry too.

"Did you get your dick bitten off or something, what the hell, Keith?" It sucked even  _worse_ when it was Lance (of all freaking people) to be the one to call him out on it when Keith couldn't even pull a decent apology together for the poor girl. The rest of the day the entire office was throwing disapproving glares at him. He felt like an asshole. He's been a jerk before but  _never_ an asshole. That was Iverson's job. No, seriously, it was even added on to his business plaque.  _M. "ASSHOLE" Iverson, Ph.D._ (yeah that poor sod never saw an honest working wage job after that little stunt)

It took Hunk and Pidge to pop by his office and drop a BLT Panini on his lap and tease him with a box of donuts to get him to loosen up and talk about it. And they did... just not about Allura. Keith would rather be caught dead with his pants tied around his ankles in the shape of a bow than to stomach the sight of their faces going all

"WHAAAA YOU AND ALLURA AREN'T DOING SO WELL TOGETHER???? YOU GUYS HAVEN'T HAD SEX IN TWO WEEKS??????"

He'd sooner chop off his own dick than deal with that nonsense. So he threw up a bunch of other stuff that's been bothering him, but absolutely not the root of his problems. And they patted him on the back and wished him their best support, and it helped a little.

Until Pidge said, "It's all going to be okay, Keith. If you want, I can go grab Allura. I'm sure she's dying to get away from today's meetings for a quicky with you."

and it was back to square one and Keith was certain he cracked a molar with how hard he clenched his teeth from looking even remotely bothered by that. "Nah, it's cool. Don't bother her. I'll just...uh... wait until we're back at the apartment before we  _really_ get down to business."

"Oh, gross," Pidge snorted and shook her head. "Never thought I'd hear you say that. Things must be going well!"

He was going to need a dentist. "They sure are."

* * *

Frustratingly, two weeks became three. Then four.

Four.

Four whole weeks without touching each other. Like. Sure they hugged and cuddled when they got home and wanted to watch a movie or unwind. Just holding on to her was all that mattered, Keith thought. Having her beautiful body pressed against his... warm, and soft. Her lips just waiting to get kissed. Every little breath she made tantalizing his ears...

It's been rough lately.

Really rough.

He tried kissing her again, pressing his lips to her neck, dragging his hands up her sides and teasing the undersides of her breasts--stuff  _guaranteed_ to get her hot and bothered for him. One time all he had to do was just caress her spine with a couple of fingers before she pounced on him and took him hard enough that  _he_ was walking funny the following morning. Yet, nothing. Nada. He'd try kissing her and she'd just turn her head and reach for the popcorn. Pat his hand gently when he'd try to get to the top of her thighs. Or she'd just suddenly gasp (and  _maybe_ she's finally getting into it) only for Keith to find out she was just surprised by something on the screen and his ego would deflate with the enthusiasm of a popped balloon.

It was starting to  _really_ get to him. 

Like  _really_ get to him.

Which is honestly the only proper excuse he had when he found himself sitting in front of Lance's desk the following Monday morning looking like he hadn't slept in a week. (Which he hadn't. Not really.) Lucky for him, Lance had really grown a lot in the past few years and had gotten a little more in touch with his sensitive side since he and Pidge finally started dating.

"Whoo, boy, you look like shit!" Lance whistled, swaying on his cushioned business chair and staring at Keith with wide eyes. "What's wrong? you look like you haven't gotten laid in a while."

...Okay, but like, at least he was sympathetic and this really  _was_ him being sensitive. So...

Keith was too tired to humor him with snark so he just got to the point. "Because I haven't." Not even worth seeing Lance freeze and dropping his jaw like that. Not even a little bit. "Allura isn't sleeping with me."

And then Lance jumped off his chair, hurried and slammed the glass door to his office closed but not without sticking his head out and saying, "Uh, Kitty, cancel my eleven o'clock, would you?"

"You don't have an eleven--"

"--Thank you!" and in a split second, Lance was back on his chair, staring down at Keith with the severity of a high school guidance counselor.

"Okay, so you say that she isn't sleeping with you... could you, uh, could you elaborate on that?"

It was the start of a steady twitch in his eyebrow but Keith had no one else to go to and damn that was pretty sad. "It's just that. We haven't had sex in over a month. More than that even. We just... we haven't been really intimate at all recently."

"How long ago did this start?"

Keith winced. "Since the merger."

" _Fuck_ , Keith!" Lance's eyes were as large as dinner plates right now. "That was almost five months ago! You mean you've been blue-balling for that long?!"

Keith's scalp hurt from how hard he pulled at his hair.

"I don't know what to do. We've never gone this long without doing it and she's been so busy all this time and... dude, I'm just trying to keep cool because all she talks about is this  _Mr. Shiro_ guy and I don't want to be the jealous boyfriend type. But this one time, we were doing it and she let out this  _sigh_ and it just freaked me out, man, I can't even--"

"Whoa, Keith, buddy," Lance raised his hands. "Slow down. Let's just... approach this with due diligence. Take a deep breath. ...now what kind of sigh was it?"

It was a long morning.

By noon, Hunk and Pidge were in his office, eyes wide and jaws on the floor. By 1 pm, they had cleared the space and snagged the whiteboard from the conference room and had written an entire list of battle plans to help him through  _Situation: ~~UNLAID~~ Dry Spell _

(They really do mean well)

and whe 2 pm rolled around, Keith had a list of things he needed to buy and the knowledge that his friends were going to help him through this no matter what. Exhausted as he was, Keith felt he could stand taller when he got to his desk and grabbed his things for a late lunch. At the very least, he had a plan for approaching Allura and a few approved fail safes should it not work. ("But it will work because it's just that good!") He just hoped it would all work out okay in the end.

Which is how we find ourselves here--three days later.

Ten minutes to 8 pm and with Keith checking his watch literally every five seconds. He sucked in a calming breath and tried not to ruffle his combed hair to curb the anxiety. He had it down to the very number of petals on the bed. The exact scent lingering in the air from the candles on the desk. Down to the perfect number of spritzes of her favorite cologne on his skin. The science had taken years of knowledge to perfect and two (fail-safe protected) evenings of experimentation to finally come together. And now all he had to do was pray to the Almighty God that she would show up, like Pidge promised, and he'd just follow the instructions on his phone, like Lance promised would help, and try not to worry about the food in the oven from not being perfect, Like Hunk had promised.

It was all going to be okay.

He just needed to be cool.

And wow, he didn't remember being this nervous about seeing Allura in his entire life. And he tried not to think too hard about it either.

Just be cool.

Deep breath.

Be cool.

Awesome.

Suave.

Sexy.

And most importantly--

"Keith?"

he spun around and sure enough, Allura was standing there, at the front of his door (god he hated not having whiny hinges at this moment) and staring up at him with some confusion. She looked just as beautiful as the day he met her, and that was when Keith knew he was truly and utterly fucked.

_I am so not going to be cool._

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is a two-parter and the next chapter will be up soon! this is more for fun and giggles.


End file.
